As I simply found myself under this fruit tree I stopped there for more than half an hour, because everything had been changed as before I left them. Of course, I believed that the fruit tree is near my town, otherwise I should not know at all that I am near my town. But as I stood under this fruit tree, thinking with doubtful mind that—“This fruit tree is marked as a ‘Future-Sign’ before I entered the bush” there I saw that two strong men held both my arms at my back unexpectedly and without hesitation they tied me with rope, then one of them put me on his head and both kept going inside the bush at the same time. They were slave-traders because the slave trade was then still existing.
After some days they reached their town which is foreign to mine. So having taken me to their town I was again sold to a man who took me to his town. But as there was no other transport to carry loads more than by head as now-a-days, so I was carrying heavy loads which three men could not carry at a time to long distances which I would travel for ten days with many other slaves. But as my body was full of sores, so it was debarring my boss getting loads from those who were giving him the job. For this reason he started to wash the sore of my body with a sponge and sand perhaps it would be healed and also flogging me severely if I cry or shake while he was washing the sore. Having done this every day for one month and when it was not healed, then he sold me again to another man who took me to the slave market, because I was not useful for any purpose in respect of the sore. Having reached the market he chained me to a tree together with the other slaves that we met there, all of us were in a straight line. But within four hours all the rest slaves had been sold and nobody buys me because of the sores. When he waited with me till about two o’clock and when he believed that no one could buy me that market day, then he was loosing the chain from me, and when he was about to return to his town a rich man came to the market, he looked round but saw no more slaves except me, because he kept late, then he came to my boss. He priced me very poor and my boss agreed, he told him to pay any amount that he likes to buy me, but when he stood before me and looked at me for many hours he said—“I cannot buy sores for my town.” Then he went back to his town. But as nobody buys me and I remained unsold, so my boss was flogging me repeatedly along the way back to his town.
When he was taking me to this market for several market days without seeing anybody to buy me, then he said—“If I take you to the market once more and if nobody buys you on that market day as well so if I am returning from the market to the town I will kill you on the way and throw away your body into the bush, because you are entirely useless for any purpose, even I have told several of my friends to take you free of charge but none of them accepts the offer, because I can no longer remain with you and your sore which is smelling badly to everybody, even the smell is also disturbing my friends and all my customers to come to my house again before I bought you.” But when the following market day was reached, the day he would kill me if there is nobody to buy me, luckily, this rich man came late to the market on that day as well, then he came to me because all the rest slaves had been sold, except me. When he came he asked from my boss how much he would sell me, but my boss told him to pay any amount that he likes. After he heard so, he stood looking at me for about an hour, then he looked round the market, but saw no more slaves, except me, then he said—“I will buy you, because I ought to sacrifice to my god with a slave for some months to come, so that I may kill you for the god.” Having said so, he paid three shillings and sixpence to my boss and he received it from him with many thanks and also thanked God greatly that I leave him.
This is a great pity that I was lost in the Bush of Ghosts for twenty-four years with punishments and when I came out of it I am caught and sold again as a slave, and now a rich man buys me and he is going to kill me for his god. This is what I said before I was following him and his follower who followed him to the market was pushing me along the road to the town. Not knowing that this rich man is my brother who left me on the road and ran away before I entered the Bush of Ghosts. Having reached the town which is my town, they put me among his slaves in the yard, but the sore of my body still remained with me. So I was living and working with the rest slaves, but as this slave yard was far from his house he was only coming there occasionally to inspect us. But as he hated me more than the rest slaves because of the sore, so he would tell some of the rest slaves to flog me in his presence for many hours as I was not useful and also at that time it was their rule that every useless slave should be severely beaten every day, because every slave buyer recognised slaves as non-living creatures. Of course, I believed that I am in my town and my mother with my brother or my family are there also, but I did not know them again and they did not know me as well.
But in those days a slave is too common to approach his master or any of his master’s family to talk or to discuss anything with him or her, so that I had no right to describe myself to my master who is my brother, that I am a native of that town and again it was hard to describe myself to the rest slaves because they were foreigners, I did not understand their language. But one day, when my mind was at rest my brother who is our master came to inspect us in the yard, as he was talking to us I listened to his voice well, and it was the same as before we left each other, again I looked at his forehead carefully which had a small scar before I left him and this scar was there as well, so through these two signs I believed that he is my brother, but still I was unable to talk to him at all, otherwise he would order the rest slaves to kill me on the same spot without hesitation.
One day, when I thought over that I am in my home town, but I could not see my family even I am a slave too in my town, so after a while I remembered the song which my brother and I were singing when we were eating the two slices of cooked yam which our mother left for us before she went to the market on the very day that we left each other, then I was singing this song and mentioning his name in this song several times. But as his name was mentioned, so whenever his wives were hearing the name they would be flogging me, and I did not understand what they were flogging me for. And as I was singing this sorrowful song every day, so one day, they reported me to him that—“Your slave who has sores on the body is mentioning your name whenever he is singing a kind of sorrowful song, hence all the slaves are strictly banned to mention their master’s name.” Having heard so he told them to go and bring me before him.
When I reached there and stood before him all my body was shaking and my voice was also trembling, because if a slave is selected from many slaves like this no doubt he is going to be killed for a god. Then he told me to repeat the song that I am singing in the yard so that he may hear it. His aim was to kill me on the same spot if I mention his name. But I started to sing this song and before I reached the part that his name should be mentioned he had remembered how we left ourselves on the road under the fruit tree. So at the same moment he shouted with gladness and jumped towards me. After that he told all his wives that I am his brother who had been lost twenty-four years ago. Then the second thing he did he told his orderlies to wash me, after that he brought many costly clothes for me as a king, but the sore of my body still remained there. After this his wives gave me food with drinks, then he sent for our mother and all his friends as well.